Pretoria - Chaos broke out outside Kalafong Provincial Tertiary Hospital yesterday when police fired rubber bullets and stun grenades to intervene in violent clashes between groups from the EFF and Operation Dudula.
They were feuding over whether undocumented foreigners should be able to access medical services at the hospital.
Violent scenes of members of the two groups throwing stones and empty bottles at each other played out at the time Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla visited the facility to inspect the impact of the anti-foreigner protests on hospital operations.
The situation was tense in the morning before the groups clashed during the day.
Some EFF members, clad in party colours, confronted picketers from Operation Dudula preventing undocumented foreigners from gaining entry to the centre for medical treatment.
The “fighters” also had a heated exchange of words with the police, who were accused of failing to enforce the court interdict obtained by the Department of Health, barring picketing outside the hospital.
All of a sudden the EFF members physically attacked the picketers, forcing them to flee from the premises.
The attack, according to witnesses, took place while journalists were in the hospital boardroom waiting for the minister to address them.
“If those Operation Dudula members had entered the Comrades ultra-marathon at the weekend they would have got a trophy, judging by the way they were running,” the witness said.
Others said EFF supporters gave chase as the protesters fled.
Members of Operation Dudula set alight EFF flags outside Kalafong hospital after clashes between the two groups over foreigners accessing medical care. @IOL #KalafongHospital #Kalafong @EFFSouthAfrica @OperationDudula #Dudula pic.twitter.com/U0cJC5cNBN
When journalists finally walked outside the hospital there was no sign of Operation Dudula protesters. It was, however, rumoured that they had gone to mobilise other members, and that they might return later in the day to retaliate.
The situation became ugly later in the day when Operation Dudula members returned in numbers to fight back.
This time it was the EFF members who fled after being confronted by Operation Dudula supporters, who struck them with sticks and sjamboks. They also burnt EFF flags.
Both parties hurled stones and bottles at each other.
The police intervened by firing rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse the EFF members, who were said to have started the fracas.
Operation Dudula members stayed put and continued to chant songs at the hospital entrance. For the past three weeks protesters have been preventing undocumented foreigners from assessing medical services at the facility.
EFF Gauteng spokesperson Phillip Makwala said his party members were not fighting anyone, but were worried that the police were doing nothing to enforce the court interdict.
Makwala earlier said: “We are not fighting here. We are here to make sure that our people access Kalafong peacefully without interruptions.”
Doctors Without Borders in South Africa was worried that protests preventing patients, including migrants, from accessing medical care amounted to xenophobia.
They also expressed concern that the hostility towards migrants at medical centres was fuelled by inflammatory and political statements from government officials, including Limpopo Health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba, who was recorded berating Zimbabwean patients at health facilities, claiming that migrants were overburdening the health system.
Addressing journalists, Phaahla said the protests were “unwarranted” because Section 27 of the Constitution was very clear that the state should make sure that people living in the country had access to health services.
“We do accept the fact that our services are under pressure and if this demand from our neighbours keeps on increasing it will reach a stage where it is not sustainable,” he said.
While he acknowledged the matters raised by the demonstrating group, Phaahla said it was not up to ordinary citizens to think that they could help the state. He said the problem was also encountered at a Hillbrow healthcare facility, where the same concerns had been raised.
“We would like to appeal to Operation Dudula: these challenges – the government, which you put in place is addressing them,” he said.
Phaahla said the issues raised by Ramathuba were genuine but were made through the wrong medium.
He said the department had not received reports about intimidation of health professionals.
Pretoria News